


The Promise of Freedom

by Gothams_Only_Wolf



Series: Under The Wing of A Nibel Dragon [5]
Category: Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Violence, Gen, Hojo is a Grade-A Bastard, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Nibel Verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:01:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24383245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothams_Only_Wolf/pseuds/Gothams_Only_Wolf
Summary: In which ShinRa's strongest SOLDIER finds an ally in the maze of executives.
Relationships: Cloud Strife's Father/Cloud Strife's Mother, Hojo & President Shinra (Compilation of FFVII), Hojo & Sephiroth (Compilation of FFVII), President Shinra & Rufus Shinra
Series: Under The Wing of A Nibel Dragon [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/722427
Comments: 15
Kudos: 171





	The Promise of Freedom

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, not sure what this is, only that Sephiroth rode herd on the Muses and insisted it be told. 
> 
> I have also made the executive decision that Sephiroth and Vincent are the base-line for ages in the Nibel series so Rufus is eight years older than Sephiroth. 
> 
> This is set shortly before his 8th birthday and during it. 
> 
> Enjoy with caution~

* * *

He'd been here since he was seven but hadn't left the labs for something other than the VR Room or more tests. 

He struggled to keep up with Father's stride, whose legs were much longer than his, but didn't say anything. 

Whining got him needles. 

Sephiroth didn't like needles or scalpels or well, _anything_ at all to do with Father. 

He hurt Sephiroth. He didn't have a word for the feeling in his chest but he knew that if he did something about it, Father would be... unkind. 

Not like Fen-Fen and 'Nika and the small bundle he'd come to adore on sight. 

He made sure to glance up and keep pace with Father in case he stopped. Father slowed and then stopped entirely. Sephiroth made sure to stop to the left of him and a foot behind. 

Father didn't like to be touched. 

"President ShinRa will see you now, Professor. Should I announce—" the man slowly looked down, down, down at Sephiroth. He clutched Masamune for half a moment, too brief for Father or the other man to see. 

"The weapon? No, I think not." Father said in his usual way, the one that implied that everyone was below him. Below him and fit for a knife in their side. 

Sephiroth knew that it wasn't right to talk to people like that; 'Nika had been sad when he'd done it. 

Father walked in and Sephiroth paused for a moment, "... Father treats everyone like that. Thank you for letting the President know we are here." 

The man startled and then gave a brief smile. "Thank you young man. You have excellent manners." 

"... I have to go now. Goodbye." Sephiroth sprinted to catch up, the snatched reprieve from Father's gaze making him warm inside. 

"You will not speak until spoken to with this man. We need his support, Sephiroth. Do you understand?" Father sneered at the door to the President's office. 

"Yes, Father." 

"Good, now come along and stop dawdling." Father ordered.

"Yes, Father." Sephiroth wanted to snarl like the Guard Dogs when Father took their pups away, unbowed and unbroken even when he did terrible things to them. He didn't because he had no Mother to turn to for reassurance, the way the puppies did. 

He had no one but himself.

* * *

"I hope you don't mind my son shadowing the meeting. He's supposed to take the Vice President role since the last fellow caught his comeuppance for trying to stab me in the back. Now, Hojo, what have you brought me?" 

"The reason we have a SOLDIER program at all. We filter the Mako through his tank and then process it for SOLDIERs. He'll be the best and the brightest, eventually, but for now his growth must be... undisturbed if we are to continue the Program." Father stated proudly. "Subject S, colloquially known as Sephiroth." 

"Why colloquially?" The younger man questioned. He still looked like one of those lanky boys Father had scoffed at on the parade field as 'teenagers' but Sephiroth wasn't sure enough to say so with security. 

"Because Subject S responds to it more than his designation, Vice President. His Mother gave it to him in a decidedly unscientific manner and that is what he responds to best for results, sir." 

"Sephiroth, come here." The President ordered. He complied and stood before the man and didn't flinch when the large hand grabbed his face before turning it side to side. 

Sephiroth suppressed the urge to bite but it was a near thing, given that the thick fingers were so close. 

"He's delicate." 

"Decidedly not, President ShinRa. He only looks that way now. I suspect he will be quite broad once he's reached the approximate age of your Vice President." Father pointed out coldly. 

Sephiroth inhaled slowly, exhaled even slower and then looked up, green challenging blue. 

"I also suspect that if you don't let go of Subject S, he is going to injure you, sir." 

"Ha! He's so small-" Sephiroth peeled back his lips and bared his teeth, like he'd seen the Nibel Wolves do. "Have some bite, ey? Why don't you?" 

"He is waiting for a command. I suggest you order him to retreat-" Father responded. 

"Retreat? When he's supposed to be the best and brightest I'll ever see? No, boy, I want you to bite me." The challenge was issued; Sephiroth was taught never to back down against an enemy. 

"Father, that's—" 

Sephiroth's overwhelming urge to get away led him to savage the hand holding him, canines digging into sensitive flesh. The copper that flooded his mouth made him gag but he bit down harder. 

A crack and Sephiroth was released from the unpleasant hold, the President holding his wounded hand with the other. Blood spilled onto the carpet as Sephiroth opened his mouth to apologize. 

"I..." 

"Silence." At Father's tone, Sephiroth's mouth snapped shut. "I will punish Subject S, sir, without losing him." 

"Continue, boy." 

"I'm sorry I hurt you, sir," he paused, licked at the blood still on his teeth and then stated what the room wanted to hear, what he'd heard from the other SOLDIERs that trained near the labs. "but if you challenge a SOLDIER, a warrior, you have earned your reward." 

"So you're apologizing for my pain but not your actions, which I ordered of you. Interesting." 

"A SOLDIER follows through on orders, sir." 

The President laughed and the Vice President followed with a quiet chuckle but what followed shocked even Father. "Excellent. A good leader knows when to back down and when to forge ahead despite his misgivings. However, I require a Cura. Can you also manage that?" 

"Yes, sir."

* * *

He demonstrated his other skills at the request of the President in the VR Room.

When he finished, covered in the virtual viscera of a yearling Behemoth calf, he looked first to his Father and then the President. 

Father gave the barest hint of approval but the President, the President massaged the hand Sephiroth had bitten with a dangerous expression. One that spoke of more awful things under Father's hands. 

"You did well, boy, more so than nearly all of our SOLDIERs. We'll induct you into the system when you reach a more... media friendly age, hmm?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"Return to your room, Sephiroth, and make sure your weapon is still in good shape." 

"Yes, Father." 

""He's a kid, what the Hels are they-"" 

""Wolf, don't. There are cameras everywhere."" 

""Henderson, he's... Gods he can't be more than six or seven. He's grown so much in so little time."" 

""Wait, you're telling me that's the little guy they sent you to see for an assessment?!?"" Henderson murmured below the volume of what ShinRa audio could detect. 

""... Yeah. We'll keep an eye on him?"" Wolf replied and Sephiroth was reminded of Fen-Fen. 

He thought that they might like Fen-Fen and 'Nika.

* * *

Mako tanking. 

That was the punishment for biting the President when he'd asked, when Sephiroth had done exactly what had been ordered of him. 

It was also the same day as it was every year, September 16th, so he wasn't sure if it counted as punishment. 

He floated, eyes closed because it bothered Father but he couldn't force Sephiroth to open them without also opening the tank. 

"Open your eyes." 

Sephiroth kept them closed, pointedly swimming in the thick liquid to settle upside down. 

He would be in there for the full 24 hours it took to filter the Mako through his tank and into the ShinRa supply; he only knew that because he'd followed the pipes once, in one of his escapes. 

"Sephiroth, open them this instant." 

He cracked them open and saw the Vice President on the other side of the tank. 

"The Vice wanted to speak to you. Be cordial." 

Sephiroth swam right side up and then tapped the side of his mask. "You requested to speak with me, sir?" 

"Cameras off. I want the staff to leave the area as well. All of them, this conversation is not for anyone but Subject S." 

With a disgruntled sigh, even Father followed the order. 

"This must be quick, Sephiroth, but... When I take over the company—and I _will_ take it over, make no mistake about that—can I ask that you be by my side as an ally? Father commissioned your Father's work but does not yet own you like he does so many others." 

"I don't understand, sir." 

"I will free you from your Father, the day I free ShinRa from my own. Will you be there, when I do it?" 

"I... I would need some time, sir. I'm still not sure what Father plans for me." 

The Vice President's expression soured briefly but resumed its blank slate after a moment. "That is a fair answer. You'll need some time. How much?" 

Time. Something Sephiroth dreaded and yet lived; something he wanted to pass quickly and yet not at all. 

"Four years, sir." Four years was a long time; maybe the Vice would have forgotten by then. Almost everyone forgot things, including Father, everyone but Sephiroth and perhaps the other SOLDIERs, the ones who got a dose of his filtered Mako first hand. 

"A long game, hmm? A long game with high stakes at the end; truly an excellent strategy. We shall train ourselves and be ready for it, should it come. Thank you, Sephiroth. I will protect you, if I can, and you will do the same?" 

"If I can, sir." 

"Agreed." 

"Yes, sir." 

The Vice President swept out of the lab and Father swept back in, looking worse for wear. 

"Alas that Turks are off limits for my experiments, I should quite like to tear them apart." The cool gaze looked him over, "What did he want?" 

"I cannot say, Father. He asked me to join him. We are joined now, through ShinRa." 

"Curious young man, isn't he? No matter. I will be testing your reflexes after your tanking." 

Sephiroth kept a hold of the promise ShinRa Jr. had made, kept it close but not closer than Fen-Fen and 'Nika and soft, little ——.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment, complain, ect.


End file.
